Sleezy the Fox Play

A play about ‘second chances’ based upon the four 'Sleezy the Fox’ stories that the late Princess Diana used to read to her children, William and Harry when they were aged 9 and 7 years respectively. Written by the founder of ‘Anger Management’ courses in Great Britain in the 70s, the stories were originally written for the purposes of radio transmission and are highly popular with schools. More

This play has been adapted from the four ‘Sleezy the Fox’ stories, which were recorded in the early 1990s for the original purpose of radio transmission.

The prominent theme of the story is one of ‘second chances’, something that all of us require from time to time in our lives.In my earlier years of development, I needed ‘second chances’ on many occasions and was lucky enough to have received ‘second chances’ at crucial periods of my life. ‘Second chances’ not only redeemed my character, but it also reformed my behaviour from that of thief to one of honest citizen.

In later life, as a Probation Officer and the founder of ‘Anger Management’ courses in Great Britain in the early 70s, I was able to afford the opportunity of receiving a ‘second chance’ to many people who displayed aggressive impulses that they were initially unable to control and manage.

When Princes William and Harry were 9 and 7 years old respectively, their mother came across these stories, contacted me and requested that I send her a copy of my 'Douglas the Dragon' and 'Sleezy the Fox' stories that she wanted to read to her sons at their bedtime. It is a nice thought to know that the next King of England was read the stories of ‘Sleezy the Fox’ as a child by his mother, the late Princess Diana.

The play has been written in a manner that makes it ideally suitable to be performed by schools and is arranged in such a way as to make the inclusion of a number of selected and suitable songs at appropriately spaced junctures possible to turn it into a Musical Play.

William Forde was born in Ireland and currently lives in Haworth, West Yorkshire with his wife Sheila. He is the father of five children and the author of over 60 published books and two musical plays. Approximately 20 of his books are suitable for the 7-11 year old readers while the remainder are suitable for young persons and adults. Since 2010, all of his new stories have been written for adults under his 'Tales from Portlaw' series of short stories. His website is www.fordefables.co.uk on which all his miscellaneous writings may be freely read. There are also a number of children's audio stories which can be freely heard.

He is unique in the field of contemporary children's authors through the challenging emotional issues and story themes he addresses, preferring to focus upon those emotions that children and adults find most difficult to appropriately express.

One of West Yorkshire's most popular children's authors, Between 1990 and 2002 his books were publicly read in over 2,000 Yorkshire school assemblies by over 800 famous names and celebrities from the realms of Royalty, Film, Stage, Screen, Politics, Church, Sport, etc. The late Princess Diana used to read his earlier books to her then young children, William and Harry and Nelson Mandela once telephoned him to praise an African story book he had written. Others who have supported his works have included three Princesses, three Prime Ministers, two Presidents and numerous Bishops of the realm. A former Chief Inspector of Schools for OFSTED described his writing to the press as 'High quality literature.' He has also written books which are suitable for adults along with a number of crossover books that are suitable for teenagers and adults.

Forever at the forefront of change, at the age of 18 years, William became the youngest Youth Leader and Trade Union Shop Steward in Great Britain. In 1971, He founded Anger Management in Great Britain and freely gave his courses to the world. Within the next two years, Anger Management courses had mushroomed across the English-speaking world. During the mid-70's, he introduced Relaxation Training into H.M. Prisons and between 1970 and 1995, he worked in West Yorkshire as a Probation Officer specialising in Relaxation Training, Anger Management, Stress Management and Assertive Training Group Work.He retired early on the grounds of ill health in 1995 to further his writing career, which witnessed him working with the Minister of Youth and Culture in Jamaica to establish a trans-Atlantic pen-pal project between 32 primary schools in Falmouth, Jamaica and 32 primary schools in Yorkshire.William was awarded the MBE in the New Year's Honours List of 1995 for his services to West Yorkshire. He has never sought to materially profit from the publication of his books and writings and has allowed all profit from their sales (approx £200,000) to be given to charity. Since 2013, he was diagnosed with CLL; a terminal condition for which he is currently receiving treatment.

In 2014, William had his very first 'strictly for adult' reader's novel puiblished called‘Rebecca’s Revenge'. This book was first written over twenty years ago and spans the period between the 1950s and the New Millennium. He initially refrained from having it published because of his ‘children’s author credentials and charity work’. He felt that it would have conflicted too adversely with the image which had taken a decade or more to establish with his audience and young person readership. Now, however as he approaches the final years of his life and cares less about his public image, besides no longer writing for children (only short stories for adults since 2010), he feels the time to be appropriate to publish this ‘strictly for adults only’ novel alongside the remainder of his work.